Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) by Varmadmcgoo — 23 Dec 2016

I had low expectations after the cash-grab disappointment that was The Force Awakens, but Rogue One was a very pleasant surprise.

Jyn Erso was wonderful, a true hero. Rogue One proves you don’t need much lightsaber action at all to make aI had low expectations after the cash-grab disappointment that was The Force Awakens, but Rogue One was a very pleasant surprise.

Jyn Erso was wonderful, a true hero.

Rogue One proves you don’t need much lightsaber action at all to make a standout Star Wars movie.

The most impressive thing about this film was how real it made the war feel. We saw sacrifices being made over and over for the sake of the Rebellion. This is why people are calling this a “dark” movie. It’s too optimistic, the rebels too successful, for the movie to be called dark; it’s weighty. The successes are earned at incredible cost. Such is war.

One notable disappointment here was the musical score. It felt largely repurposed from John Williams’ previous work — and sometimes, that was enough, but it felt like a timid mimicry of greatness. Were there any new musical themes introduced? I don’t recall any. It’s fine, even necessary, to use the Imperial March when Vader shows up, but there needs to be more, too.

We met so many delightful characters — all human except for K-2, whose brand of humor was most welcome, and which stands in stark contrast to the dumb dad-jokes C-3PO made in the latter prequels. No, this was smarter humor, which felt (again) more “earned.